


The Eye of the Beholder

by khilari



Category: Girl Genius
Genre: Other, Storm King Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-02
Updated: 2017-08-02
Packaged: 2018-12-10 00:31:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11680269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/khilari/pseuds/khilari
Summary: The Castle sees Otilia for the first time.





	The Eye of the Beholder

The first time the Castle sees Otilia she is furious, shouting at her king as they approach the city, beating around him like a moth around a flame. _Sympathy_ is not a feeling the Castle has much experience of, not towards the little flesh creatures that live inside it, but it understands the frustration of a wayward Master. Andronicus is rushing to his doom and she may not stop him.

The King casts her off, offers her to the Heterodyne. She betrayed him, he says, and Otilia shouts that she did not, she has not even failed, not yet. She will find the Heterodyne Girl, she will fulfil her orders. The Heterodyne takes her anyway. Orders the Castle to restrain her and tells it to keep her safe.

The Castle has to drag her to its deepest dungeon, pin her to the wall, chain her. Such an odd little shell they’ve given her, like one of their own bodies, so small, so inefficient a design. Yet within those limitations she’s built like well made armour, rivets through the joints that so easily dislocate on humans when you pull them apart. Winches for the wings set deep, deep into her back. An engine humming in her chest that could power her for hundreds of years.

_Beautiful_.

The Castle shifts its passages. The Masters are busy after all. Elsewhere Bludtharst is chaining Andronicus to a slab and the outcome will doubtless be entertaining enough to keep him busy for a while.

Perhaps, if the doors are not obvious, they will not think about this dungeon.


End file.
